The Westboro Baptist Church says they will picket funeral services scheduled for the victims of Monday’s horrific bombing in Boston, Massachusetts.

The church — a Topeka, Kansas-based religious organization that
has been labeled by many as a “hate group” — says God allowed the
city of Boston to be attacked because Massachusetts was the first
state in the US to legalize same-sex marriage.

A tweet sent from one of the church’s accounts on Monday
explained their reasoning and announced that the group plans to
picket funeral services scheduled in the coming days. So far the
bombing has claimed three lives and President Obama called the
incident an “act of terror” during a Tuesday morning press
briefing.

“The federal government is classifying the bombs as a
terrorist attack, but say it’s unclear if it’s of a domestic or
foreign nature,” the church writes. “Here’s a hint — GOD
SENT THE BOMBS! How many more terrifying ways will you have the
LORD injure and kill your fellow countrymen because you insist on
nation-dooming filthy fag marriage?!”

“Christ Jesus said that same-sex marriage would prevail just
before the time that He returns in power and glory, taking
vengeance on the disobedient (Luke 17; 2 Thes. 1). Massachusetts
invited this special wrath from God Almighty when it was the FIRST
STATE to pass same-sex marriage on May 17, 2004. As a direct and
immediate result of that first step down the slippery slope to
nationwide fag marriage, God sent the devastating bombs to the
Boston Marathon,” says the church.

Previously the group has picketed a number of high-profile
funerals while holding signs containing anti-gay messages. The
group picketed the funeral of Matthew Sheppard — a homosexual man
killed as a result of a hate crime in 1998 — and in recent months
attempted to protest services for victims of the Sandy Hook school
shooting and film critic Roger Ebert.

On Tuesday, the group continued to credit the attacks as an act
of God, not terrorism, and published photos of a new sign likely to
appear at any demonstration in Boston — it reads “God Sent the
Bombs.”

The group also recorded a song in response to the event and
began circulating it early Tuesday. The first verse of
“Massachusetts” goes:

“Your fall all began in Massachusetts
Where the wedding fags first found a home
Now God’s light has gone out in Massachusetts
And the whole nation reaps just what you have sown.”

A petition created on the White House’s We the People website
back in December asking for the Westboro Baptist Church to be
formally recognized as a hate group has so far garnered 354,502
signatures. Two other petitions combined have collected the names
of roughly 150,000 people who are asking for the church’s
tax-exempt status to be revoked.

Upon news of their plan in Boston, a petition added to the site
this week asking the church to be banned from picketing funeral
services for the bombing victims has already received over 6,000
signatures.

“It's sickening to know that the WBC will be picketing the
funerals of two innocent people, one of which is only an 8 year old
child. We can't let them get into Boston and do this,” writes
the author of the latest plea. “This is a petition to stop the
WBC from getting into Boston, or worse, picketing the funerals of
two innocent people. There is no excuse for this kind of
behavior.”

Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous have also expressed
their disbelief in the church's latest stunt, prompting several
so-called Anons to post on the Internet ominous warnings about what
could come of a Westboro-led protest.

"Dear @WBCSays, I wouldn't fuck with the people of Boston
when they're mad. #BostonBeatDown," the
@YourAnonNews Twitter account wrote to its nearly one-million
followers.

The church's official website, godhatesfags.com, has also
suffered intermittent blackouts since the group said they'd picket
the funeral. In the past, Anonymous has used distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to shut down the church's website
and waged a campaign to help keep the group out of Newtown,
Connecticut after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook
elementary school.

Less than 24 hours after two bombs went off near the finish line
of the Boston Marathon, police say three people have been killed
and more than 100 injured, elevating the attack to one of the most
vicious acts of terror seen on US soil since the September 11, 2001
assaults.